PRoblem

He was just dozing off when the fat lady up the aisle let out a scream. A huge reptilian head had materialized out of nowhere and was hanging in air, peering about uncertainly. A scaly green body followed, four feet away, complete with long razor talons, heavy hind legs, and a whiplash tail with a needle at the end. For a moment the creature floated upside down, legs thrashing. Then the head and body joined, executed a horizontal pirouette, and settled gently to the floor like an eight-foot circus balloon.

Alan E. Nourse (1928-1992) was an American science fiction writer and physician whose fiction often combined speculative ideas with practical intelligence, ethical concern, and clear storytelling. He began publishing science fiction in the early 1950s and became known for novels and stories that frequently explored medicine, technology, social pressure, bureaucracy, alien contact, and the human consequences of scientific change. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes that Nourse was also a physician and that much of his nonfiction concerned medicine; it also describes his short fiction as often mixing adventure elements with strong speculative ideas.Nourse's work includes Star Surgeon, Trouble on Titan, The Bladerunner, A Man Obsessed, and many shorter works from the magazine era of science fiction. His stories often show an interest in decency under pressure: how people respond when institutions fail, when fear spreads, or when a new discovery exposes old prejudices. PRoblem, first published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1956, shows his lighter satirical side, using alien refugees, public relations, and public fear to create a comic but pointed science fiction story about appearances, persuasion, and human sympathy.